1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a computer cable and, more particularly, to a Serial ATA cable
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates an Ultra ATA parallel interconnect cable for computer. Because this design of cable has a big number of (at least 70 or 80) conductors arranged in parallel, the cable 11 and the connectors 12 occupy much installation space. This bulky drawback is a barrier to the fabrication of smaller and thinner computers and computer peripheral apparatus. In order to eliminate this problem, Serial ATA cables are developed. Serial ATA is the next generation storage interface standard for PC, designed to replace the ultra ATA parallel interconnect cable with a much smaller, more flexible serial design. FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrates a Serial ATA cable according to the prior art. This structure of Serial ATA cable comprises a connector body 13, a set of terminals 14 mounted in the connector body 13 and backwardly extended out of the rear side of the connector body 13, a cable 15, the cable 15 having conductors 151 respectively soldered to the terminals 14, and a housing 16 injection-molded from plastics on the connector body 13 and a part of the cable 15 to fix the cable 15 to the connector body 13. This structure of Serial ATA cable still has numerous drawbacks as follows:
1. It takes much time and labor to solder the conductors 151 to the terminals 14, and a toxic gas is produced when soldering the conductors 151 to the terminals 14.
2. It is difficult to control the quality because the conductors 151 are thin and the two middle conductors must be soldered to a common terminal. Improper soldering affects the electric properties of the Serial AT cable.
3. When molding the housing 16, the applied pressure may cause the terminals 151 to deform, and a short circuit may occur when the terminals 151 deformed.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide a. Serial ATA cable, which eliminates the procedure of soldering the conductors of the cable to the terminals in the connector body. It is another object of the present invention to provide a Serial ATA cable, which requires less installation space. To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, the Serial ATA cable comprises a connector body, a holder block fastened to the rear side of the connector body, terminals of two different lengths alternatively arranged in parallel in the connector body and the holder block, each terminal having an upright endpiece defining a Y-shaped engagement groove, a cable connected to the terminals, the cable having conductors respectively engaged in the Y-shaped engagement grooves of the endpieces of the terminals, a locating block fastened to the holder block and the connector body to hold down the cable, and a housing molded on the holder block and the locating block to fixedly secure the cable to the connector body. Because the terminals are positioned in respective terminal grooves in the holder block and the conductors of the cable are set in respective conductor grooves in the holder block and secured to the Y-shaped engagement grooves of the endpieces of the terminals, the conductors are prohibited from interfering with one another. Further, because the conductors are protected within the holder block and the locating block, molding of the housing does not impact the conductors.